FYI, this story appeared in the Globe-Gazette yesterday or this morning.

Lyle



North Iowa Opinion Story
Posted online: Tue Oct 8 00:40:14 CDT 2002
Ad distorts livestock bill's impact (Reality Check)

By TODD DORMAN, Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau

    - THE ISSUE - Did Gov. Tom Vilsack play a big role in crafting a
controversial set of livestock regulations passed in 1995?

- THE CLAIM - Republican Doug Gross' TV ad claims Vilsack helped write the
bill "that allowed large-scale hog lots in Iowa in the first place."

- THE REALITY - Vilsack helped write a controversial section of the bill,
but Gross' ad largely distorts the governor's role and the bill's impact.


Portrayed for months by Democrats as an ally of giant hog producers,
Republican Doug Gross is now trying to convince Iowa voters he's not the
only candidate for governor with manure on his wingtips.

Among Gross' latest TV ads is a 30-second spot charging that Democratic Gov.
Tom Vilsack "helped write the legislation that allowed large-scale hog lots
in the first place, House File 519." The bill passed in 1995 while Vilsack
was a state senator representing Mount Pleasant.

"He drafted legislation that protected those facilities from neighbors suing
them," Gross said in an interview. "I don't think he can have it both ways."

Vilsack argues it is Gross - an attorney who has represented and lobbied on
behalf of corporate hog producers - who is trying to have it both ways.

"It's absolute nonsense," Vilsack said in an interview. "He (lobbied
against) 519 because he didn't want any regulations at all. He wanted these
facilities to be built wherever and whenever."

Vilsack did play an important role in crafting the final draft of H.F. 519 -
a massive, much-maligned bill marking Iowa's first attempt to regulate big
confinements. Vilsack said he was called on by Democratic leaders to rework
a section of the bill that he argued "completely" barred hog-lot neighbors
from filing "nuisance lawsuits." Rural Iowans had begun filing claims
seeking damages related to foul odors or other environmental side effects of
pork production. Livestock producers sought a lawsuit shield fearing the
spate of legal actions by angry neighbors would put them out of business.

Vilsack said his amendment protected farmers while also creating a "window"
through which neighbors could file suit if a confinement operation violated
state regulations. Some lawmakers who served with Vilsack in 1995 agree with
his side of the story and said his amendment was a bipartisan compromise.

The bill eventually passed the Senate by a single vote in the wee hours of
the morning. Vilsack voted yes.

"He was the assigned mediator by (Democrats)," said former Sen. Jim Lind,
R-Waterloo. "We had to do something politically and policy-wise. (Vilsack)
had the legal mind and the mediation skills to get it through." Lind argues
that Gross' campaign ad on the issue is "full of half-truths."

Not everyone was a fan of Vilsack's compromise, however. Former Sen. H. Kay
Hedge, R-Fremont, said the lawsuit protection provision forced him to vote
against the bill, even though he supported new regulations. "I didn't think
the nuisance suit protection was fair to neighbors," Hedge said. "It was
denying them their day in court."

The Iowa Supreme Court didn't think much of nuisance suit protection either.
It struck down a nearly identical legal shield found elsewhere in the Iowa
Code, ruling that such protections amounted to the unconstitutional taking
of property rights from confinement neighbors. It's widely believed that
ruling also renders Vilsack's H.F. 519 amendment null and void.

"I believe now, and I had a suspicion then, that this would not work very
well unless you gave local folks a greater degree of control and authority,"
Vilsack said. He has called for giving county officials final say over where
confinement operations are built.

For all its faults, however, it may be a considerable stretch to suggest
that H.F. 519 was the bill that "allowed large-scale hog lots in Iowa in the
first place." 

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, state
regulators approved 408 hog confinement construction permit applications
between 1990 and 1995. At that time, according to the DNR, a facility using
a concrete manure storage basin and housing more than 2,000 "animal units" -
equivalent to about 5,000 full-grown hogs - required a permit. Facilities
that used earthen manure basins needed a permit if they housed more than 200
units, or 500 hogs.

Back in 1990, Gross urged the Hardin County Board of Supervisors to accept a
plan by corporate hog producer Jack DeCoster to build a confinement
operation in Hardin County.

And other large firms, such as Iowa Select Farms, were also building in Iowa
well before 1995. 

"The welcome mat was already down," said Neil Hamilton, a law professor at
Drake University and expert on agricultural law. 

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